Obituary of Irene Carrick Gill (1901-2000)

After doing some Mendenhall research, I came across an interesting obituary of Irene Carrick Gill- 

I didn't have her in my tree, but after tracing back, I already had her grandparents in my tree. 

If you read her obituary, she led a very interesting and "out-of-the-box" lifestyle for a woman of her time. 

At the beginning of the article, it talks about her grandparents travels to California. Her grandmother "Mary Allen Mendenhall", whose parents died traveling by wagon to California, was actually Mary Adelaide Allen (1830-1903). She was 17 when she traveled to California with her parents and they died. She married William Martin Mendenhall (1823-1911) in 1848. 

Timeline for Irene Carrick Gill:

~1901- 24 Feb- Irene is born to Fred & Etta (Mendenhall) Carrick in San Francisco. She is the middle daughter- older sister Elizabeth & younger sister Maryetta.

~1906- 18 Apr- San Francisco Earthquake. After the quake, The Carrick family moved to Oakland. In 1900, a year before Irene was born, the family lived at 1001 Pine Street, which is now an apartment building that was built in 1963.

~1923- Graduated from UC Berkeley.

~between 1923-1939 she married & divorced a man with the surname Gill. I have yet to find any information on him. 

~shortly after 1923, Irene started work as an editorial writer for the California Milk Advisory board and later became the Northern California Manager. 

~1940- April 8- (1940 U.S. Census)- Irene is Irene Gill- Divorced- Living at 178 Geary Street for $40 a month rent. She is an Editorial Writer for "dairy". The building is no longer there but it used to be a tai restaurant called the Haven. She probably lived in an apartment or room above the restaurant. I found this neat vintage menu on Ebay: Shows the whole menu for The Haven and has the address at the top. 

~1966- Irene retired from the California Milk Advisory Board.

~1975- Joined the Center for Learning in Retirement (CLIR) and was chairperson for 2 years.

Irene lived a full life that seemed to fit her desired lifestyle. She never had children and lived life for herself. She died at the age of 99 and is buried in Oakland in the Mountain View Cemetery. Sadly, she has no gravestone. I so wish I had a picture of her! 

Irene Carrick Gill is my 5th cousin, 5x removed.